A real-time recursive dynamic model for vehicle driving simulators

This paper presents the Real-Time Recursive Dynamics (RTRD) model that is developed for driving simulators. The model could be implemented in the Driving Simulator. The RTRD can also be used for off-line high-speed dynamics analysis, compared with commercial multibody dynamics codes, to speed up mechanical design process. An overview of RTRD is presented in the paper. Basic models for specific vehicle subsystems such as tire, steering, brake, power train, aerodynamics, etc., are interfaced with multibody dynamics to create a complete vehicle simulation model. Basic theories of each vehicle subsystem model are introduced and the interfaces with the multibody dynamic model are discussed. Required data for setting a vehicle model listed and an Army’s High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) modeling example is illustrated. For operator-in-the-loop simulation, the interface between the RTRD model and the simulator subsystems, i.e., visual, motion, audio, and terrain database, is presented. Finally, the parallel processing algorithm of RTRD model is illustrated. Benchmarks for the baseline RTRD code are analyzed using two vehicle examples, a passenger car and a tractor-semitrailer.